Decorative ornamentation of helmets has been a part of world culture since at least the time of the ancient Romans. A wide variety of methods have been employed to decorate helmets including, for example: hand painting, using a brush and enamel, acrylic or oil-based paints; air brush graphics using a hand held air brush and acrylic enamel or lacquer paint; decals wherein adhesive is utilized to adhere a thin film of plastic or other material to the object; and spray painting with air pressure guns utilizing enamel or lacquer paints.
Such approaches are generally deficient in that they are inefficient, time consuming and expensive, thereby limiting their application mostly to custom orders and small production runs. The inefficiency of these prior art approaches has led to a limited variety of motorcycle helmet decorations. This is true even in the case of the relatively commonly employed expedients of vinyl taping and adhesive decal processes which currently produce the liveliest designs for motorcycle helmets and the like.
The present invention utilizes a vacuum-forming step during the process of manufacturing a decorated helmet. While vacuum-forming techniques have been employed to manufacture decorative active-sporting helmets, particularly what are commonly known as "bicycle helmets", conventional processes employ separate molds, an approach not applicable to motorcycle helmets and other types of helmets because of their shapes, designs, and venting schemes.
Applicant is aware of the following United States patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,077, issued Jul. 23, 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,973, issued Jun. 13, 1989, U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,506, issued Apr. 25, 1989, U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,100, issued Sep. 6, 1988, U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,258, issued Oct. 6, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,630, issued Feb. 24, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,447,282, issued May 8, 1984, U.S. Pat. No. 2,419,758, issued Apr. 29, 1947, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,335,139, issued Nov. 23, 1943.
None of the patents noted above relate to helmet decoration. Furthermore, the various disclosed techniques and approaches of these patents are not applicable or pertinent to the decoration of helmets in the manner taught by applicant herein.